Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

EMA 2010

RTV SLO launched an open call for songs for the competition. All interested parties could submit entries until 14 December, with all songs sung in the Slovene language. An appointed jury selected 14 songs to progress to a semi-final (EMA Predizbor). A number of these songs were to progress to the final (EMA Izbor), where they would be joined by seven songs submitted by prominent local composers invited by the broadcaster. EMA 2010 will be held in the first fortnight of March 2010.

EMA 2010 introduced a number of new features to the contest: for the first time the winner was decided solely by the televoting public; during the selection of the songs by a jury, special number and letter codes were used to identify the songs, rather than the names of the authors; and all songs were to be sung in the Slovene language, both in EMA and at the Eurovision Song Contest - this is due to certain legal restrictions made on RTV SLO to promote the Slovene language, despite controversy among professional and public audiences, and debates on the authors' artistic rights, and promotion of Slovene culture in foreign languages.

RTVSLO announced the 14 semi-final participants on 18 December, selected from 111 submitted entries. On 8 January 2010 the broadcaster announced the seven direct qualifiers in the final, as well as the running orders for both the semi-final and final, which was to be on 20 and 21 February, as confirmed by RTVSLO on 7 January.

Over three weeks 90 second clips of the 21 songs were performed by the artists on TV show Spet doma. The first seven songs from the semi-final were performed on 31 January, with the remaining seven semi-finalists performed on 7 February. On 14 February the seven finalist songs were performed in their full versions after all the songs were presented on Radio Val 202 in their full versions on 11 February.

Semi-final

The semi-final of EMA 2010 was held on 20 February 2010.

Interval acts in the semi-final were provided by Bosnia and Herzegovina's 2009 Eurovision entry Regina; Slovene 2008 Eurovision entry Rebeka Dremelj; and former EMA contestants Natalija Verboten and Eva Černe. Seven acts from the 14-strong line-up progressed to the final on 21 February.

Final

The final was held on 21 February 2010. 7 preselected finalists were joined by the seven semi-finalists, with the final winner decided by televoting.

Guest performances in the final were provided by Eurovision 2009 winner Alexander Rybak; former Slovene Eurovision entry and runner-up of EMA 2009 Omar Naber; former EMA runner-up in 2005 and 2006 Saša Lendero; EMA 1999 runner-up Tinkara Kovač; and last year's EMA winner and Slovene Eurovision entry Quartissimo and Martina Majerle.

The winner of the final was Ansambel Roka Žlindre and Kalamari with the song "Narodnozabavni rock", gaining a total of 15,907 votes, over five times as many votes as runner-up Nina Pušlar with the song "Dež". Langa came in third place with "Roko mi daj".

At Eurovision

Slovenia competed in the second semi-final of the contest on 27 May 2010. Ansambel Roka Žlindre & Kalamari performed 11th on stage, following Romania and preceding Ireland. Slovenia finished in 16th place, finishing with only 6 points, 1 point from Israel and 5 points from Croatia. Therefore they did not qualify for the final on 29 May.

In the semi-final Slovenia gave the maximum points, 12 points, to Croatia, 10 points to Denmark and 8 points to Azerbaijan. In the final, where Slovenia were also allowed to vote, the country gave 12 points to Denmark, 10 points to winners Germany and 8 points to Serbia. In the final the Slovene points were announced by Andrea F.